Southampton City Council (202318910)

Background

1. The resident lives in a one-bedroom flat with his 2 children. The resident complained that he was without heating and hot water for 10 days and had to find alternative bathing facilities for his household. He stated the landlord offered no additional support.

What the complaint is about

2. The complaint is about the landlord’s handling of:
   1. Response to reports that the resident had no heating and hot water.
   2. The associated complaint.

Our decision (determination)

3. There was maladministration in the landlord’s response to reports that the resident had no heating and hot water.
4. There was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the associated complaint.

We have made orders for the landlord to put things right.

Reasons

The resident’s reports of no heating and hot water

5. On 13 July 2023 the landlord sent all residents in the building a letter advising of planned maintenance works to the flats scheduled for 31 July 2023 to 4 August 2023. It explained that residents will be without heating and hot water at periods throughout these days. This was reasonable to make residents aware in advance of the lack of service availability. The landlord is responsible for providing heating and hot water to its residents as per the tenancy agreement.
6. The resident called the repair department on 3 August 2023 and informed the landlord that he was without hot water. It told him the hot water would be back up the following day, which was in line with its original letter. However, as the issues remained, the resident emailed the landlord on 7 August 2023 informing it that he was still without heating and hot water since 2 August 2023 and that he wanted a reduction in his rent due to this issue. He subsequently complained he and his children cannot take a bath and he was unhappy with the length of time this has gone on for.
7. The landlord stated in its stage 1 response that it had a report from the resident on 2 August 2023 that he had no hot water and confirmed that engineers were investigating the matter. The landlord did not uphold the complaint on the basis that the engineers attended in a timely manner. This was not a reasonable response as it should have informed the resident during the time the repair was outstanding as to when the planned works were due for completion, the reasons for the delays following the original deadline of 4 August 2023 and details of any additional support it could provide. There is no evidence it did this.
8. The landlord’s final response did not uphold the complaint or offer any compensation as it stated that the repair delays were outside of its control as the building needed scaffolding and an asbestos survey. There is no evidence it told the resident this prior to it completing the repair on 14 August 2023.
9. The resident told the landlord during his complaint the lack of bathing facilities was an issue. The landlord should have at this point considered providing additional support, but it did not do so, which caused the resident an unnecessary expense.
10. In summary, the landlord did provide advance notice of the planned maintenance and so some inconvenience is expected from this. However, the repairs were not completed by the due date, which meant the resident was without heating and hot water for a total of 12 days, which is a further 10 days than what the landlord stated. There is no evidence to suggest the landlord informed the resident of the ongoing issue, and the resident had to send several emails for the issue to be resolved. The landlord should have informed residents of any delays as the landlord was already aware of the loss of hot water and heating affecting multiple properties at the block of flats from other residents.
11. Whilst the landlord stated the delays were outside of its control due to scaffolding and asbestos surveys needed, the landlord should have assessed if it needed to provide further support to the resident during this period without the use of an essential service. The landlord could have provided access to alternative bathing/showering facilities, agreeing to refund the resident the cost of using these elsewhere or even agreeing to refund the resident the extra cost of heating water for bathing at home with a kettle or cooker, but it failed to consider any additional support, which was not reasonable.
12. Therefore, there was maladministration in the landlord’s handling of the response to reports that the resident had no heating and hot water. The landlord is ordered to pay the resident £250 to recognise the distress and inconvenience and the detriment caused by this issue. This takes into account the length of time the resident was without an essential service and for no additional support provided to the resident.
13. The landlord is also ordered to contact the resident to invite them to submit evidence of their costs from having to shower elsewhere and for the landlord to consider refunding these and to provide the resident with a written response with details of any claims for this the resident wishes to make.
14. All the above are in line with our remedies guidance where there was a failure which adversely affected the resident which the landlord has not attempted to put right.

Complaint handling

15. The landlord has a 2-stage complaints process in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (the Code). The landlord’s complaints policy says that complaint acknowledgements will be issued within 5 working days, a stage 1 response will be issued within 10 working days, and a stage 2 response will be issued within 20 working days.
16. Initially, the landlord acknowledged the stage 1 complaint on the same day. However, the stage 1 response was significantly delayed. The resident had brought the complaint to us, and we had to contact the landlord on 5 October 2023, before it issued its stage 1 response on 11 October 2023. This was 35 working days overdue and significantly outside the timescales set out in the landlord’s complaints policy and the guidelines in our Code.
17. The landlord’s stage 1 response was brief and did not address the issue fully or inform the resident of the reasons for its delay in restoring the hot water. It also did not acknowledge the delay in its response or apologise for this.
18. The resident emailed the landlord on 24 November 2023 asking for its final response. The landlord did not escalate the complaint but instead repeated its escalation process to the resident on the same day, copying in its complaints team. The complaints team should have at least contacted the resident to confirm if he wanted to escalate at that time, and if not, it should’ve accepted the escalation request at that time.
19. The final response sent on 19 March 2024, was 80 working days after the resident escalated his complaint, which again was significantly outside the timescales set out in the landlord’s complaints policy and the guidelines in our Code.
20. The landlord’s stage 2 response stated the resident did not inform it of the issue until he raised the complaint on 9 August 2023. However, this is incorrect we have seen evidence he contacted the repairs team about this on 3 August 2023 and 7 August 2023. Also, there were several dates that were incorrect in the final response which can be confusing when read.
21. Overall, there was maladministration in the handling of the complaint by the landlord for the above reasons and the landlord is ordered to pay the resident £150 to recognise these failures in its complaint handling. This in line with our remedies guidance.

Putting things right

Where we find service failure, maladministration or severe maladministration we can make orders for the landlord to put things right. We have the discretion to make recommendations in all other cases within our jurisdiction.

Orders

Landlords must comply with our orders in the manner and timescales we specify. The landlord must provide documentary evidence of compliance with our orders by the due date set.

Recommendations

Our recommendations are not binding, and a landlord may decide not to follow them.